The LA4 has now been plugged in for about a month. It has replaced my 2 year old Audio by Van Alstine T10 Rb tube preamp. I was happy with this preamp until I went to RMAF in October. Since I already had the Benchmark ahb2, I had to check out the LA4. My two sources are a turntable with a moving coil cartridges, and a CD player. A Benchmark DAC will be added later this year.
I also had to purchase some Benchmark interconnects, and a AVA phono preamp.
The Sound? My music preferences are Classical, R&R, and Big band. The imaging on my system was good, not great. What do I point my finger at-room, components, speakers? Not anymore! The 3D imaging is now almost palpable. Not only can I hear left to right, the front to rear is awesome. The front imaging is now in front of my Salk Songtowers.
A part of the imaging is that there is much more music coming thru my speakers.
The texture of stringed instruments is much more obvious now.
With only about a month on these new pieces, I am still expecting more improvement.
Benchmark says the LA4 and the Ahb2 are a perfect match. I agree!